Production and use of fuel ethanol in Brazil - BAFF

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C3. Social responsibility practices
C3.1.
Are there any actions towards systematically
implementing social responsibility programs
that can lead to important improvements in job
quality?
There have been many (whether separately or as part of more complete programs)
over the last decade. As a result, the plants in the State of São Paulo maintained
more than 600 schools, 200 day nurseries, and 300 ambulatory medical units(2003).
In a sample consisting of 47 units (São Paulo), more than 90 percent of those units
provided medical and dental care, transportation and group life insurance, and more
than 80 percent provided meals and pharmaceutical aid. More than 84 percent had
profit sharing programs, accommodation, refectories and day nurseries.
An important step was the system introduced through the preparation of Social
Balance Indicators (IBASE model) four years ago in many companies. The results
at 73 companies (Unica, SP, 2003) show investments equivalent to 24.5 percent
of the payroll in such areas as: profit sharing (6.72 percent); food (6.54 percent);
healthcare (5.6 percent); occupational safety and medicine (2.3 percent); and
education, capacity building and professional development (1.9 percent). Those
indicators are being gradually used for benchmarking among companies, with the
effect of speeding up the introduction of such programs.
Unica has partnered the World Bank Institute to initiate a Corporate Social
Responsibility and Sustainable Competitiveness program, which is a course for the
companies’ internal public (directors, managers and collaborators) and students from
the best universities in São Paulo. In 2004 and 2005, 2,500 people (businessmen and
employees of the companies concerned) participated in training programs aimed at
evaluating concrete situations and preparing reliable diagnoses.
The industry participates in the international survey called Business and Economic
Development to identify the impacts of its companies and assess the sustainability
of the model in use. The results of this effort —undertaken in partnership with
the Ethos Institute (Brazil), the BSR (Business for Social Responsibility, USA), the
C. Sugar-cane and ethanol production: social impacts